Australian iTunes rips

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I know that non-CC'd US iTunes rips are the preferred source of pony images around here, but I really feel that we as a wiki should move to using the Australian iTunes rips. Why? Because the Australian iTunes rips aren't bleached and they haven't been cropped. And since the US iTunes rips have been cropped and then blown up to be in 720p, that means that all images derived from them are stretched and therefore at a reduced quality. The Australian iTunes rips are superior to the US iTunes rips in every way. And until one of us can have a look at the DVDs, they also come closer than any other source to looking like the actual show. Take a look at this version comparison:

Left - US iTunes
Middle - AU iTunes
Right - CC'd US iTunes

As we can see, the Australian version has better colors, better quality, and shows more.

I also think that we should try to replace all the images from US iTunes rips or HDTV rips with images from Australian iTunes rips. However, the Australian iTunes only has season 1 up for download. That being said, I'm not sure if I should tell you where to find the Australian iTunes rips. Facilitating internet piracy of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic on the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic wiki seems a bit blasphemous to me. Also, don't be suckered in by the 1080p Australian iTunes versions. Get the 720p versions. The show was made in 720p, and anything in 1080p has just been upscaled from 720p and doesn't actually look better at all.

All that being said, I know that VLC media player is the recommended method of screen-capturing ponies, but I prefer Ctrl+PrtScing Windows Media Player. Why? See for yourself:

Left - VLC media player
Right - Windows Media Player

As we can see, the colors of the image taken with VLC media player are more faded and a bit saturated. A lot of the borders between different colors also look aliased. So yeah. You should Ctrl+PrtSc Windows Media Player. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Reversalmushroom (talk • contribs) 01:41, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

Comments

As for your first point, I see what you're saying; though after S1E14, I hear the US iTunes copy stops cropping the image, and after S2E2, the colors closely match the show (to my knowledge), but for episodes before that, I agree, though I also feel that it's not a big enough issue as to where an image that has already been replaced with the US iTunes rip, color corrected or not, should be replaced once again with the Australian iTunes rip.
As for your second point, I'm sorry, but I'm going to flat out refuse to do that. VLC's images are fine for me (I never notice any aliasing, except on rare occasions on Rainbow Dash's mane), and it's a lot of unnecessary work, pasting it into a program and then saving that (not to mention the fact that WMP doesn't have a frame-by-frame function, at least, not one that I'm aware of), not to mention it unnecessarily upscales the image (and file size). I hear there's a way to correct the colors in VLC player; hereis the guide (though I wouldn't think VLC's naturally washed out colors would affect screencaps, though maybe I'm wrong. I should also follow my own advice and do that, probably, lol).
(Also, I resized your images, as they were way too big before) -- This isJonny Manz, signingoff! 03:43, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

That fix is only for if you have an Nvidia graphics card.

Also, I always resize Windows Media Player so that it's 720p.

Also, there is aliasing at the top of Apple Bloom's hair, around her bow, around that thing that Big Macintosh always wears around his neck, and around the tail of that pony behind Apple Bloom.

I still say it's more work than it's worth (at least, for a guy like me, who's borderline OCD about matching frames exactly when uploading higher quality versions of pictures, because it doesn't have a frame-by-frame function, does it?), but I suppose with that modification, it does become a viable alternative. -- This isJonny Manz, signingoff! 05:07, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

I always hit the play/pause key multiple times until it stops on the desired frame.

I used to do that, but I don't have the time, patience, or energy to use such a method anymore (I mean, I spent the better part of an hour getting this picture, or rather, its jpg predecessor. If you do, then more power to you, I suppose. -- This isJonny Manz, signingoff! 06:44, January 5, 2013 (UTC)

I'm using the "whatever torrent I can find first" iTunes rip. But if you know of a place to get these Australian versions I will gladly switch to using them since they seem pretty good. Too bad we'll probably never get to see what a British iTunes rip looks like. 06:43, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

I'm tired so I don't really want to get into it, but I will say one thing: do not replace one 720p high-quality source with the one you use (this goes for anything, not just this particular discussion) just because it's different. It's not worth the huge amount of potential work that would create. I see claims all over the place of what "the show is intended to look like" but there are so many versions and no proof. This is the policy: you can use any high-quality source, but don't upload one on top of another. ~Bobogoobo (talk) 07:41, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, if it's low-quality or cropped for no reason, replacing it is helpful and is what we do all the time. But if it's "cropped" because it's the US iTunes version, then don't. I'd think there's some reason that that version is sold on the platform that I'd think most people get it from, but in any case having a war of the versions is just a headache. ~Bobogoobo (talk) 08:20, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

Usually which is the first website to have the Australian rips available? I just wonder because I want to get some safe links to rips, I had had issues with the ones of Reddit before. Forcetalk 14:49, January 3, 2013 (UTC)

Whatever you do, don't use the "color corrected" versions. They're recompressed and the colors are oversaturated and manipulated. –Throwy 08:28, January 5, 2013 (UTC)

The show is made for HDTV. HDTV goes up to 1080i, which means that the show is made at at least that. As for WMP print-screening, you do realize that that takes a picture of the resolution that your computer is at? So if you're using a different resolution than the file, then it's going to mess with the picture. For VLC screen-capping, try setting the format to PNG. I noticed a long time ago that after a certain update, the JPGs it took looked terrible. Moldy and the Ponds (talk) 21:39, January 7, 2013 (UTC)

What I was trying to say, is that the 1080p iTunes rips are actually the best (Until it comes out on Blu-ray oh please god make that happen in my lifetime). If you compare the two on a TV, you'll easily notice that if your resolution is at 1080p (from whatever source), that the 720p rips look grossly upscaled. The 1080p copies still look great however. Moldy and the Ponds (talk) 21:46, January 7, 2013 (UTC)

I resize Windows Media Player to be 1280x720.

The show was made in 720p and then The Hub converted it to 1080i. 720p>1080i. You should watch this video:

I have VLC media player set to output PNG files, but they still look washed out, and I don't think that there's a way to fix that.

1080p might look better on TV, but it doesn't serve the purposes of this wiki as well as 720p. Most peoples' monitors aren't big enough for 1080p, so you're just blowing the image up and then down-scaling it again, so there's no point in taking 1080p screenshots, unless what you're after are giant file sizes with no quality increase at all. Also, the only way for me to get 1080p screenshots is with VLC media player.

Well, I just got a hold of some DVD rips, and it looks like we won't be using those for pony images. In terms of coloring, they're better than US iTunes, but not as good as AU iTunes, but what kills these is the resolution; instead of being 1280x720, they're 853x480. Why? Why didn't they make it 720p? You would think that because it's the DVD, it would at least be on par with the other sources they've been released. Not only that, but I actually resized my AU iTunes rip to be 480x853, and the picture was still clearer and sharper than the DVD, so not only is the DVD lower resolution, but it's lower quality. I actually thought I was finally going to get to see what the show was supposed to look like. And each one of these episodes takes up 0.99 gigs, so why the high file size for such poor quality?

Maybe you're unfamiliar with DVDs, but they only do 480p at best. Really good 480p, unless you're downsizing the HD source, then the DVDs will look worse by comparison. Moldy and the Ponds (talk) 20:59, January 8, 2013 (UTC)

The largest resolution supported by a standard DVD is 720x576.

The show airs on The Hub at 1080i, but it is available on iTunes at 1080p. It is not upscaled, except for some shots in the first three episodes–not all shots are upscaled, only a few; this appears in the US iTunes videos, I haven't checked the Australian ones yet. I'm pretty sure these shots are upscaled in the master video for one reason or another, otherwise it wouldn't be just some shots and not others.

The Australian 1080p iTunes videos are currently the best available videos and should remain that way at least until 4k video becomes the standard. –Throwy 20:17, January 8, 2013 (UTC)

720X576 are PAL DVDs. NTSC ones only do 720X480 (or 853X480) at best. Moldy and the Ponds (talk) 20:59, January 8, 2013 (UTC)

Just checked, and yes, the US ones only have problems up until Suited for Success. After that, they fixed all the issues. So only the first 14 episodes are superior in AU. Even that iTunes only error from A Dog and Pony show is still there. Moldy and the Ponds (talk) 23:10, January 8, 2013 (UTC)

I just looked at the US iTunes version of episode 26, and it still looked faded in comparison to AU iTunes. Even in VLC media player.

Well I only tested Feeling Pinkie Keen and A Dog and Pony Show, so maybe there are a couple episodes here and there that are also inferior. The one thing I can't stand about the AU rips tough is that 5 second Madmax intro. Moldy and the Ponds (talk) 00:29, January 9, 2013 (UTC)